BURBANK, CA-Those who follow @GlobeStcom on Twitter and @GlobeStLIVE may have seen a post teasing the announcement, but GlobeSt.com has learned that Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. has entered into a joint venture with M. David Paul & Associates/Worthe Real Estate Group to acquire the Pinnacle, a two-building, 625,640-square-foot, class-A office property located in the Burbank Media District. The MDP/Worthe entities will be contributing their existing ownership in the Pinnacle to the newly formed joint venture. The JV acquired the 393,776-square-foot Pinnacle I building for $212.5 million, $129 million of which was financed with a new 10-year project loan. MDP/Worthe currently owns 100% of the 231,864-square-foot Pinnacle II building, which it has agreed to contribute to the JV for a purchase price of $130 million by the end of first-quarter 2013, subject to certain closing conditions. Upon completion of the transaction, the joint venture will own both buildings for a combined purchase price of $342.5 million, subject to $218.6 million of project-level financing. HPP expects to own approximately 65% of the JV and will serve as its managing member.

BAKERSFIELD, CA-An offshore investor is selling a 166,565-square-foot government-leased office complex here. The list price of $33,185,000 equates to $199 per square foot. Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services’ Michael Lawrence, a SVP investments, and Blake Bokosky, an associate, both in the Newport Beach office, have the exclusive listing to market the property and are representing the seller. The three-building complex is situated on 17.48 acres at the signalized corner of East California and Union avenues, a prominent commercial intersection.

RIVERSIDE, CA-The Regents of the University of California has purchased the Intellicenter office center, a three-story, 150,000-square-foot building located at 14350 Meridian Parkway here, for $17.4 million from KDC Real Estate Development and Investments. Lee & Associates’ SVPs Rich Erickson, David Mudge and Tom Pierik represented the seller. The building was constructed in 2008 and is LEED Gold Certified. It will be used to consolidate the University of California’s payroll and human resources operations. At this time, UC only has plans to occupy the third floor.

TORRANCE, CA-Los Angeles-based Torrance Gateway LP has sold a single-tenant, big-box, triple-net-leased retail property occupied by Sports Authority at 3610 Torrance Blvd. here in an off-market transaction for $11.11 million to RPM Investments, also from Los Angeles. Jeff Conoverwith Faris Lee Investments represented the seller. Built in 1994 with a complete rehab in 2012, the 46,000-square-foot property is situated on 4.03 acres. The closing cap rate on the transaction was 7.4%.

ORANGE, CA-Turner Real Estate Investments has purchased a 29,330-square-foot, single-tenant industrial building at 1130 W. Trenton Ave. here for an amount undisclosed to GlobeSt.com. The distressed building was purchased via foreclosure; Chris Migliori of Daum Commercial Real Estate represented TREI in the transaction. The new owner will provide necessary, modest deferred maintenance to the building and plans to reset the building to market in order to create a successful sell to a user.

DEVELOPMENT

LOS ANGELES-The USC Annenberg School for Communicationand Journalism here has broken ground on Wallis Annenberg Hall, an 88,000-square-foot building that will feature a high-tech, fully converged newsroom and studios. The groundbreaking on the $56.5-million project launches a $150-million fundraising drive aimed at raising money for capital projects to enhance the hall—labs, studios, technology—as well as student scholarships, fellowships, chaired professorships and funding or start-ups led by students and faculty. The initiative is part of the broader Campaign for the University of Southern California, a multi-year effort to raise $6 billion for the university’s academic, community and capital priorities. Plans for the five-floor building, scheduled to open in Fall 2014, call for a “technologically transformative jewel” in the center of USC’s campus.

SAN DIEGO-Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. has completed construction of Nautilus, a nearly fully leased, approximately 220,000-square-foot, world-class life-science campus located in the heart of the Torrey Pines submarket here. The project is leased to tenants including Novartis AG, Sequenom Inc., the Scripps Research Institute and Verenium Corp. Alexandria transformed the property from a collection of underutilized buildings into a fully integrated, life-science campus. It is a highly sustainable facility which has been designed to achieve LEED® Gold Core and Shell certification as recognized by the US Green Building Council.

BROOMFIELD, CO-Wood Partners has begun construction on the 297-unit Alta Harvest Station Apartments community at the southeast corner of Wadsworth Blvd. and 118th Ave. The three-story, 283,175-square-foot gated-community project is located on 13.75 acres and is scheduled to be completed in February 2014. Wood Partners is the general contractor, and Steve O’Dell of ARA is the broker.

OAKLEY, CA-Hayworth-Fabian LLC, the City of Oakley and the Oakley Chamber of Commerce have broken ground on a $10-million, 1.68-megawatt DC solar facility that will use S-Energy’s high efficiency 295 W solar modules to provide shaded parking for the RVs and boats at the Executive RV & Boat Storage facility here. Over 170,000 square feet of canopy parking engineered and constructed by Baja Construction will be the backbone of the solar-energy facility engineered and constructed by Cenergy Power, a division of BAP Power Corp. Under PG&E’s Small Generator Feed-In-Tariff ("FiT") program, PG&E will purchase the solar power generated at this site under a 20-year contract.

LEASES

OAKLAND, CA-Cargo Force Inc. has signed a lease renewal for 48,000 square feet of industrial space at 7240 Edgewater Dr. here with Prologis. The tenant was represented by the Cushman & Wakefield team of Andrew Briner and John McManus of the firm’s Oakland office, and Matthew Trone and Steve Hager of the Denver office. The landlord was represented in-house in the transaction.

Chip Wiser represent California Center in the marketing of the 61-acre office project with more than 500,000 square feet of existing space available for immediate occupancy. The property is owned by RREEF, the real estate investment arm of Deutsche Asset Management.

LOS ANGELES-Fashion brand Groceries Apparel is moving and expanding its corporate headquarters and manufacturing facilities to Alameda Square downtown. The brand signed a five-year lease with EVOQ Properties Inc. to occupy 33,000 square feet of Building 2 at Alameda Square, located at 767 Alameda here. The company is expected to complete the move in early November.

SANTA MONICA, CA-Dimensional Fund Advisors has re-structured and renewed its officelease at 1299 Ocean Ave. here. The firm’s current lease covers the first, 10th and 11th floors of the building; the new lease, valued at more than $15 million, will consist of the first and fifth floors of the building, about 20% less square footage than previously occupied. The fifth floor will be completely renovated into state-of-the-art space. Jake Bobek and Ted Simpson of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant in the transaction.

FINANCING

PORTLAND, OR-HFF has arranged $56 million in financing for a four-property seniors housing portfolio with 419 units located here on behalf of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC and the Springs Living. The financing was composed of a five-year floating-rate loan that was used to acquire, reposition and renovate the portfolio, which includes three properties south of Portland: Carman Oaks, a 174-unit property in Lake Oswego; Cedar Creek, a 58-unit property in Sherwood; and the Wilsonville, a 95-unit property in Wilsonville. The fourth property, Mill Creek Point, which has 92 units, is located 82 miles east of Portland in the Dalles. The team representing the borrower was led by managing directors Stephen Skok and Timothy Joyce.

FRESNO, CA-The San Francisco office of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC has arranged a $30-million loan to refinance the Shops at River Park (Phase I), part of a 1-million-square-foot shopping and entertainment complex here. SVP Mitch Thurston and VP Andy Ahlers worked with the borrower, River Park Properties II, to secure the 10-year, fixed-rate loan.

LOS ANGELES-Sequoia Real Estate Partners has launched Pacific Value Opportunities Fund II to acquire, renovate, manage, and dispose of single-family houses and apartment communities in California. PVOF II, a California limited partnership, will facilitate investment in residential properties of one to four units that are underpriced and/or capable of being renovated or otherwise improved to substantially increase value, resulting in higher disposition prices and strong fund profits. Sequoia’s founding and managing partners, Eric Sussman, Bruce Bartlett and Tim Gresham, will invest significant capital in the fund, and Sequoia intends to take advantage of investment opportunities unavailable to buyers requiring debt financing on each acquisition. Sussman, Bartlett and Gresham anticipate that 100% of all invested capital and profits from PVOF I will be distributed to investors by the end of 2013. PVOF II is relatively moderate in scale at only $10 million, and Sussman expects it to be fully subscribed quickly.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

SAN DIEGO-The local office of Jones Lang LaSalle has expanded its research department with the addition of Jessica Chiang as research analyst. Additionally, Eli Gilbert, formerly senior research analyst, was promoted to research manager. Gilbert and Chiang are charged with increasing research and analytical support for the firm’s local brokerage experts. Gilbert now oversees research operations in the San Diego and Phoenix offices. Chiang will work closely with Gilbert to refine and expand the San Diego research platform and support JLL’s local broker professionals. She is a recent graduate of Pepperdine University.

SAN JOSE-Jeff Chestnut has joined Cresa San Jose’s office as a financial analyst. Chestnut will provide financial modeling and analyses to help local real estate tenants understand their options and make informed decisions. Prior to joining Cresa, Chestnut served as an accounting assistant at Chestnut Construction in Tucson, AZ, and he also worked at CBRE in Tucson.

About Our Columnist

Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the West Coast region of GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.